Lecture 1: Introduction, geological structures,

primary structures

Kinematic analysis of deformation

B. Natalin

Structural geology and tectonics

• Structural geology is the study of deformation of rocks - we study such features as folds, faults, their geometry, movements, origins; - largely descriptive; - distinction in terms of individual structures - micro-, meso- (mega-), and macro scale

Structural geology and tectonics

• Tectonics is the study of evolution and development structures at regional scale

• Tectonics is:- largely genetic- historical- integrative- macro- and global scale

Structural geology and structural geologist

A structural geologist:• Describes and depicts geologic structures• Delineates rock bodies and units and their relationships • Elucidates deformation history.

Thus a structural geologist is:• a geological historian, especially as concerns the

development of geologic structures• careful observer• a configurational scientist in open ended research

(always new, better, more highly refined ways for improved depiction and interpretation)

Structural geology brings together:

• Stratigraphy• Paleontology• Petrology• Geophysics• Geochronology

Barriers to understanding

• Vastness of the Earth volume

• Vastness of geological time• Complexity of natural

system• Record is not complete

Structures

• A geologic structure is a geometric feature in rock whose shape, form, and distribution can be described

• Depending on the purpose of study geologists classify structures using different criteria

Structures: Classification based on geometry

• Planar (or subplanar) surface

• Curviplanar surface

• Linear feature

Classes of structures: Bedding, joint, vein, fault, fold, shear zone, foliation, and lineation.

Planar structures

Joints and bedding

Curviplanar surface of bedding

Classification based on geologic significance• Primary: formed as a consequence of the formation

process of the rock itself• Local gravity-driven: formed due to slip down an inclined

surface; slumping at any scale driven by local excess gravitational potential

• Local density-inversion driven: formed due to local lateral variations in rock density, causing a local buoyancy force

• Fluid-pressure driven: formed by injection of unconsolidated material due to sudden release of pressure

• Tectonic: formed due to a) plate interactions; b) interaction between the asthenosphere and the lithosphere; c) crustal-scale or lithosphere-scale gravitational potential energy; d) the tendency of crust to achieve isostatic compensation.

Classification based on timing of formation

• Syn-formational: formed at the same time as the material that will ultimately form the rock

• Penecontemporaneous: formed before full lithification, but after initial deposition

• Post-formational: formed after the rock has fully formed, as a consequence of phenomena not related to the immediate environment of rock formation

Classification based on the deformation mechanism

• Fracturing: related to development or coalescence of cracks in rock

• Frictional sliding: related to the slip of one body of rock past another, or of grains past one another, both of which are resisted by friction

• Plasticity: resulting from deformation by the internal flow of crystals without loss of cohesion, or by non-frictional sliding of crystals past one another

• Diffusion: resulting from material transport either solid-state or assisted by a fluid (dissolution)

Classification based on the mesoscopic cohesiveness during

deformation• Brittle: formed by loss of cohesion

across a mesoscopic discrete surface

• Ductile: formed without loss of cohesion across a mesoscopic discrete surface

• Brittle/ductile: involving both brittle and ductile aspects

Classification based on the strain significance

• Contractional: resulting in shortening of a region

• Extensional: resulting in extension of a region

• Strike-slip: resulting from movement without either shortening or extension

Classification based on the distribution in a volume of rock

• Continuous: occurs through the rock body at all scales

• Penetrative: occurs throughout the rock body, at the scale of observation; up close, there may be spaces between the structures

• Localized: continuous or penetrative structure occurs only within a definable region

• Discrete: structure occurs as an isolated feature

Primary and Nontectonic Structures

• Structures that form during or shortly after the deposition of rocks, and are not an immediate consequence of deformation

• Nontectonic structures• Depositional, penecontemporaneous,

intrusive, and gravity-slide structures for both sedimentary and igneous rocks

Sedimentary structures• Bedding = layering = stratification

• Bedding – Primary layering in a sedimentary rock, formed during deposition, manifested by changes in texture, color, and/or composition; may be emphasized in outcrop by the presence of parting

• Overturned beds – Beds that have been rotated past vertical in an Earth–surface frame of reference; as a consequence, facing is down

• Parting – The tendency of sedimentary layers to split or fracture along planes parallel to bedding; parting may be due to weak bonds between beds of different composition, or may be due to a preference for bedparallel orientation of clay

Stratigraphic facing (= Younging direction) – The direction to younger strata, or, in other words, the direction to the depositional top of beds

The use of bedding in structural analysis

• The Law of Original Horizontality• Bedding provides a reference frame• Bedding is labeled S0 (pronounced ess-

zero), where the S is an abbreviation for planar structures (surface)

• Bedding provides information on depositional environment, younging direction, current direction

• Homoclinal

Graded beds and younging direction

• During settling, the largest grains fall first, and the finest grains last

• Bouma sequence in turbidites

• Flysch

Cross beds and younging direction• Sedimentation on a lee side• Topset, forset, and bottomset beds• Erosion of topset beds• Clear stratigraphic facing and current indicator

Cross beds in fluvial deposits of the Manzurka Formation, Baikal Lake

Erosion of topset

Convolute folds

Disrupted Bedding

•Load casts•Sand volcanoes•Clastic dikes

Studies of disrupted bedding, sedimentary dikes, and sand volcanoes provide an important basis for determining the recurrence interval of large earthquakes

Load castsExtend downward from a sand layer into an underlying mud or very fine sand layer

Load casts

Clastic dikes

Clastic dikes

Clastic dikes

Conformable and unconformable contacts

Disconformity beds above and below the unconformity are parallel to one another, but there is an age difference between the two sequences

Angular unconformity strata below the unconformity have a different attitude than strataabove the unconformity.

Nonconformity strata were deposited on a basement of older crystalline rocks.

Buttress unconformity beds of the younger sequence were deposited in a region of significant predepositional topography

Angular unconformity

Base of white rocks

Nonconformity

How to identify unconformities?

Compaction and DiageneticStructures

• Compaction results in a decrease in porosity (>50% in shale and >20% in sand) that results in an increase in the density of the sediment

• Compaction of mud leads to development of a preferred orientation of clay - shale

• Deeper compaction can cause pressure solution

Penecontemporaneous Structures• Deposition on a preexisting slope or tilting

prior to full lithification in a tectonically active region can pull the layers down the slope

• Fluid pressure in the layers keeps the layers apart

• Debris flows• The deformed interval is intraformational,

meaning that it is bounded both above and below by relatively undeformed strata

Gizem slump, Karaburun

Debris-flow deposits

Salt structures

• Salt is a sedimentary rock that forms by the precipitation of evaporate minerals (typically halite [NaCl] and gypsum or anhydrite calcium sulfates) from saline water

• Rifts and passive continental margins• Salt is much weaker than sedimentary

rocks it may deform solely in response to gravity – halokinesis

Maximum Freeboard

• Pressures equal under sediment and under salt

• rsedgZ = rsaltg(Z+F)

• F = Dr Z / rsalt

• E.g. Dr = 200 kg /m3, Z = 2 km, rsalt = 2000 kg/m3 gives F = 200 m

Z

F

rsed

rsalt

Ian Davison

Diapiric freeboard and buoyancy-Al Salif Yemen

Davison et al. 1996

Salt glaciers, Iran

Igneous structures

• Extrusive rocks are formed either from lava that flowed over the surface of the Earth and cooled under air or water, or from ash that exploded out of a volcanic vent

• Intrusive rocks cooled beneath the surface of the Earth

•Magma is less dense than the surrounding

rock, and buoyancy forces cause it to rise•At the level of neutral buoyancy, the

magma may form a sheet intrusion, or may pool in a large magma chamber that solidifies into a blob-like intrusion called a pluton

BatholithPlutonStockLaccolith

Dike (Dyke)Dike swarmsSill

Ring dikes

Radial dikes

Plutons

• Temperature gradient – 20 - 40°/km• Shallow level plutons – sharp contacts• Deep level plutons – gradual contacts • Migmatites

Pillow lavas

Columnar jointing

Tuffs

Kent Condie in Taiwan